Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1887-02-09
STATEHOOD SCHEME.
Details u . Plan for Making Two
States Of Dakota, Without the
Authority Of Congress
The Hugh j. Campbell Idea In New Form
Thc Movement to Ne Pressed Upon
the Territorial Legislature III
the Present Session.
lYankton Press and p.kotaian. !

~ Hnc DcCOute . WtI-tbthUlhueu CONCLUSION
among close students of the Statehood prob
lem that the Legislature Of our Territory is
possessed Of the power to habilitate the State.
The Legislature operates under a grant of
power from Congress-, which ~legalizes it's acts
IN advance and gives them vitality from the
moment of their creation. Laws enacted by
the Legislature Of Dakota are binding upon all
persons, officers as well as citizens, from the
President Of the United States down to the con-
stable of a civil township. They are in full
force until repealed by the power which Gre
ates them, annulled by act of Congress or set
aside by the Courts,
The Legislature of Dakota therefore pos
sesses the power to create the State, through
the agency of the people. II can empower the
representatives Of the people TO meet in con-
stitutional convention and adopt a constitution,
subject to ratification by a vote of the people.
i can pass laws directing certain officers of
the Territory fall officers not appointed by the
Presidency to turn over their Offices, and the
public funds, to the officers of the State upon
a specified day when the officers of the State
shall be ready to exercise the functions OF
their respective positions. 1t can direct
County Treasurers to remit all collections TO
the State Treasurer, and can authorize the
transfer OF judicial proceedings to the juris-
diction Of the State. The transfer Of official
authority and Of public funds from the Terri
torial officers to the duly elected and qualified
officers OF the State is all there is in a change
from a Territorial condition to . condition Of
statehood. This transfer the Legislature OF
Dakots has the undoubted power to order and
direct and provide by law. And such action
on the part of the Territorial legislature would
stand as law Until repealed, annnlled or set
could be created, and after the State is Gre
ated there is no authority, excepting that Of
unlawful force, to set aside the State so Gre
ated.
II the Legislature Of the Territory of Da-
kota will rise TO the level OF the emergency
now before the people of this Territory and
exercise its ~undoubted power in the premises,
1t can, through the process Of constitutional
law, place IN operrtion one or two State Gov
ernments upon the soil of Dakota, and in thus
habltating State Government and discontinu-
ing Territorial Government it can avoid all
clash or conflict of jurisdiction and any incon-
v~enlence or embarrassment to the public. All
that is required to accomplish this is to pass
an act disseminating the Territorial Offices Of
Treasurer, Auditor, Superintendent of In
struction, Assistant Superintendent Of ~Instruc-
ton, Attorney General, Adjutant- General,
Commissioner of immigration, and the various
lesser places, and directing their incumbents
to turn over, public property TO their success
sors under the State organization, receiving re-
ceipts therefor, which receipts may constitute
a release Of the bondsmen Of the Territorial
officers.
In contemplating a proposition in behalf Of
action OF such a decisive nature the Legisla-
ture and the people should not forget that the
law which governs in so important a matter
as the transfer OF the power of self
government to half a million Of people is fun
damental, not statutory, and that there il no
law, either fundamental or statutory, to cast
the slightest impeachment in the way OF such a
proceeding. Congress never has, never will
and never can create an enactment prohibiting
10000 American citizens, inhabiting l5o, 90
square miles Of area, from taking upon them
selves the powers and privileges of seIf-gov-
eminent under the constitute on and laws of
the United States.
{ After the law making tribunal of the Terri
tory OF Dakota, which is the Territorial Legis-
lature, has, in accordance with the foregoing
suggestions, given to the people an opportun-
under and by authority of the higher law Of
the land, and the people have fully exercised
this privilege and are sustained by the popu-
lar voice In the possession of their State Gov
eminent, such State Government cannot be
overthrow by any exercise of power which
the American people Mt large would sanction.
States thus created would be nothing less
than States within the Union. There is no
other place for them. II has been decided by
the supreme Court, and is a well established
principle, that this Territory is now and al
ways will be an integral part of the Union.
States created out of the Territorial domain
could therefore be nothing less than States
within the Union, as the process of local gov
ernnental change, under the fundamental law
of that Union, could in no wise remove them
from the alliance to which they belong and of
which they are and always will be a part The
difference between these States and the other
class of States might be that while both classef
were in the Union one class would be granted
would be temporarily denied any vote. This
could occur for sectional and political reasons
only, and would have no effect upon the con-
stitutional standing Of the new States.
In tho light of these conclusions it has been
decided by the most ardent Statehood workers
within Dakota to unite in a request to the Leg
islature to enact a law which shall authorize
and convene constitutional conventions for
both North Dakota and South Dakota, with the
purpose OF organizing two States and two
State Governments, under the State names of
North Dakota and South Dakota, placing the
dividing line between the two States along the
seventh standard parallel The Legislature
will be asked to make full provision for these
two constitutional conventions and TO create
such laws az will enable the two States TO pass
into actual existence without inconvenience
and without any conflict of Jurisdiction or
authority between the Government of the
States and the Government of the Territory
they are to supersede. To this end the Legis-
iature will be asked to make full provision by
law for putting in motion the machinery OF
Statehood Government in each of the proposed
States.
This movement is instituted in the full con-
vlction, based upon past experiences and re-
cent developments, that unless the whole peo-
pie OF both Dakotas, with the unanimlty and
energy, take immediate and practical steps to
assert and institute their right to self govern
ment, they arc doomed to from six to ten more
years Of Territorial vassalage. 1t is fully be-
lieved that the voice OF Dakota will 60 forth in
behalf OF this proposition, and that the Legis-
lature can perform no greater act of Justice to
their constituents than to open the way to easy
and certain statehood.
The movement it is now proposed to inau-
gurate il based upon these facts and conclu-
! sions:
A great majority in both North and South
Dakota favor the admission into the Union of
two States to be created from the domain Of
Dakota.
The demand for the Division Of Dakota and
the creation Of two States is justified by area,
population, wealth, internal resources and
governmental necessities.
The future interests Of the millions who are
TO inhabit the proposed two Dakotas demand
this solution Of the statehood problem.
The future interests of the great Northwest
enter the consideration Of this case. There is
. political and sectional demand that our terri
tOrial empire OF l5O,C00 square miles, e~qualing
in extent the whole Of New England and the
States Of New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland,
Ohio and West Virginia combined, eleven States
in all, should secure at least four Senators to
help Offset the twenty -four allowed the States
enumerated.
The Territory Of Dakota now contains over
half . million people and with its area of arabic
land is fitted to maintain . dense population.
Possessing an area nearly equal to that Of
the Atlantic States, capable Of sustaining =
population Of one hundred TO the square mile
fifteen million people--it would be gross in
justice to compel Dakota to accept only two
Senators against the thirty-two allowed the
Atlantic States. This injustice once accom-
plished must be endured for oil time and
would be productive OF future evils aud dan
gers which it is our duty to avoid.
There is no prospect, no hope, that Congress
viii take any steps to relieve Dsxota from its
long ago Outgrown Territorial condition, The
present Congress- has announced its purpose
to ignore Dakota's demands. The next Con-
gress will be engrossed in matters pertaining
to the approaching Presidential election and
in absorbing social, labor and commercial
questions now forcing themselves into promi-
hence. Dakota will be left to care for itself,
and the Legislature should not permit the
biennial session to pass without arming the